Station 82 open for business

South Libby Station opened for business on Monday

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Paradise had been running both Engines 81 and 82 from the Birch Street station. On Monday, Engine 82 was back at it’s Station 82 home for the first time since the Fire.
Paradise Post file by Eli Stillman

For the first time since the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, Engine 82 was back home at Station 82 on South Libby, Road in Paradise.
As of 8 a.m. the station was staffed and ready to respond to emergencies.
“For homeowners, they now have peace of mind knowing that the fire department is there to protect them in the local area,” battalion chief Jason Morris said. “This could potentially help them get insurance or lower their insurance.”
But Morris said that’s not the only reason that getting Station 82 up and running is a good thing. Fire season is here and Cal Fire is positioning itself to respond to it.
“This grass is turning brown,” he said. “And we need to our fire engines space out to protect us from any kind of wildfire we are potentially facing.”
Morris noted that the Camp Fire took out a lot of brush, a lot of the trees, which creates more sunlight.
“When you have sunlight, you have the ability for grass to grow much easier,” he said. “You have the ability for brush to grow much easier. ”
He said that lack of shade may create grass in areas of town that hadn’t had much grass before. He warns that grass will eventually brown and that means a lot more potential for grass to ignite, simply because there’s more of it.
The re-opening of the station means that firefighters will be able to respond to medical calls much faster in that area. Since the Camp Fire shut down Station 82 because of infrastructure issues (power and water) Engine 82 had been responding out of 81 on Birch Street.
“The fire department was never really closed,” Morris said. “We just had two engines out of there. Now that we’re here, we’ll have closer, faster response times.”
Morris expects that the response times to improve by five to eight minutes — and in some cases 10 minutes.
“Which doesn’t like a lot of time but it’s a huge amount of time,” he said. “But let’s say a worst-case scenario, a heart attack. We want to be there within four to six minutes because that’s the best chance for the heart and the brain to survive.”
Morris also said that the town is committed to the public safety and understands that it’s a critical part of the to the recovery and rebuilding.
Paradise Fire/CALFIRE officials also say they will be working diligently to education residence on fire safety, hardening homes against wildland fires and defensible space.